I have a third-great-grandmother, Mary J. Freeman, who I recently decided to focus on in order to learn about her origins, which I only knew from census records as New York. Her husband was Royal Oliver. I found four records on FamilySearch accounting for their marriage in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1856, though they varied a [...]

Genealogy-enthusiasts will oftentimes be approached by budding researchers and asked to give lessons, crash-courses, or a few tips on tracing family trees. While there’s no official guideline for research, the following brief outline can be very helpful in introducing newbies to genealogy. It goes over a few of the basic record-categories (census, immigration, and vital records) and discusses free websites to get [...]

Did you know you can use Google to search a specific website? This comes in handy when you happen to find a site, such as a USGenWeb county site, that is simply a collection of web pages. It may not be very helpful for searching databases that Google doesn’t reach, such as those on Ancestry.com [...]

I learned a very valuable family history research principle years ago, and I’ve seen its application more and more as I gain experience in genealogical research. It is a powerful tool for breaking through some brick walls.
Look in neighboring jurisdictions.
Like ourselves, our ancestors did not neatly compartmentalize themselves into cities and counties. They might live [...]

I’ve learned a couple of basic genealogy lessons the hard way doing family history research over the years. Learn from my experience and save yourselves time and effort!
Talk to older members of your family. You may find the answers are right in front of you.
For example, my mom had a letter from her grandmother, which [...]

Most people know more about their family history than they think they do. I often run into clients who assure me that the minimal information they’ve provided is ALL they know. Usually after a brief review of their information, I come up with several questions that I think they can probably answer. They usually can.
I [...]

A prospective client posed that important question recently. He wanted to know how the cost of professional research would change if we found that research has already been done. How would he benefit? Part of my answer follows.
It is true in genealogy that we share our ancestors with others and axiomatic that, especially in American [...]

Until about 1845 German emigrants generally chose Antwerp, Rotterdam, or Le Havre as ports of departure.  By the middle of the nineteenth century, entrepreneurs in the north German ports of Bremen and Hamburg realized they could increase their income dramatically by filling ships with emigrants bound for America and other destinations.
The Hamburg Passenger Lists that [...]

Is a godparent the same thing as a baptismal sponsor? Who can be a godparent?
Yes, generally the term godparent is equivalent to baptismal sponsor. Who, then, can serve as a baptismal sponsor at a Catholic baptism? Technically, canon law (church law) requires only one sponsor for baptism, but there can be two sponsors, one male [...]

It was exciting to work on the Tim McGraw episode of “Who Do You Think You Are?”. A lot of hard work went into determining which stories could be used from the research conducted by ProGenealogists (a Division of Ancestry.com), Ancestry.com, ShedMedia, and some local researchers. Southern States work is not easy and numerous records [...]